The Power of Mentorship in Perioperative Nursing
Learn how mentorship can help you gain confidence, develop essential skills, and advance your career in perioperative nursing. Discover tips for finding a mentor and becoming a mentor yourself.
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Published: 10/3/2024
Colorectal surgery naturally increases the risk of surgical site infections (SSIs) for patients. To address this, the CDC has developed well-established, evidence-based practices specifically aimed at preventing SSIs in these procedures.
Unfortunately, even when incorporated into facility policies, this evidence doesn’t consistently translate across all operating rooms. A group of infection preventionists, including Peter Graves, BSN, RN, CNOR, investigated how a group of hospitals had implemented the 2017 CDC SSI guidelines.
They discovered that barriers to SSI safety practices extended further than expected.
One key finding: While OR leaders authorized the standardized use of triclosan-coated sutures in line with the CDC guidelines, a decision made by someone outside the operating room prevented the standardization of this recommended suture.
Digging deeper, Graves and colleagues found that five of the seven key SSI elements in the CDC guidelines fell well below an acceptable compliance threshold. “Such barriers to safe practices force surgical teams to make choices among various available options, which may contribute to poor patient outcomes and increased costs.”
Graves is sharing the study to help surgical teams bridge gaps in SSI prevention practices that can arise between policy, product, purchasing, and frontline care.
Consider these five evidenced-based actions from the CDC guidelines that Graves recommends OR teams need to advocate for to ensure more consistent SSI prevention practices:
Beyond just colorectal surgery, every surgical patient is at risk for SSIs if OR teams aren’t following the latest sterile technique practices recommended in AORN’s recent update to the Guideline for Sterile Technique.
Graves called out these two essential safety practices discussed in the AORN guideline:
Because maintaining sterility is crucial for patient safety and infection prevention, Graves urged all nursing leaders and staff “to familiarize themselves with this essential guideline for improving outcomes in all surgical settings.”
Learn how mentorship can help you gain confidence, develop essential skills, and advance your career in perioperative nursing. Discover tips for finding a mentor and becoming a mentor yourself.
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Highly reliable data collection processes are necessary not only to chronicle a patient’s response to nursing interventions and clinical improvement of the patient, but also to demonstrate the healthcare organization’s progress in and dedication to improving outcomes.